What have I been up to?

Making a gift for my SIL. Yay! This is using the Monk's Bag pattern that an on-line friend posted a link to recently.





I received Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match a few years ago for Christmas. I finally got to use it! I wanted something that would really be a focal point on the front of the bag so I decided to pull the Cherry Blossom motif out of the strap fabric and make the Sakura (Cherry Blossom) applique block from this book to put on the bag and tie it all together.



The instructions call for one solid inner pocket. But I can never find a pen at the bottom of my bag so I added in an extra seam to make the pocket more functional to hold a pen and a cell phone or other small item.



I also agree with my on-line friend's recommendation to use a 5/8" seam allowance on the top of the inner (lining) strap. If you follow the instructions and use a 1" seam allowance it makes sewing it all together entirely impossible. Otherwise it's a super easy bag to make and if you don't go crazy with hand sewn applique, it would sew up in a couple of hours from start to stop!

One last hurrah!

So my last hurrah on quilting goodies* came just before Christmas while I was visiting the in-laws in Greensboro NC. My MIL took me to Randy's Quilt Shop. I bought a few yards of really cute fabric for a bento box I'll get to later this year and one pattern. Normally I don't buy patterns because there are so many free ones out there or I can pretty much figure it out just by looking at it but I couldn't resist this modern take on the double wedding ring quilt designed by Virginia Robertson. I've never made a DWR so I wasn't sure at all how it was constructed. Glad I bought it.
Glowing Wedding Ring


I really want to make it for my sister. She's been bugging me forever to make her another quilt. I gave her the first quilt I ever made. It's uh... funky. Now she wants a nice one. ;^) Who could blame her? lol...

* New years resolution - buy no new fabric for one year! Work on making the fabric stash smaller.

Happy New Year

One of my resolutions this year is to not buy any new fabric but use just what's in my stash already. I've already run into my first obstacle - I received a gift card to my favorite fabric store for Christmas! The plan in my head is to use it for things like needles and thread when/as I need them. However I know I can't resist a fun fat quarter! I am weak. Maybe I should make an exception to the rule and allow myself to spend it on backing fabric only for that pile of quilt tops I want to finish this year. Which is quilting resolution #2 - finish what you've already started! No new projects until TWO current projects are finished. At least that will cut down on the rampant new project spree I seem to always be going on and help me focus and get things DONE!